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As res­i­dents of Fort Pic­ton, Laven­tille, stood shell-shocked and stared in dis­be­lief as the body of pen­sion­er Ver­na Rigault was re­moved from her gut­ted home yes­ter­day, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for the area, Ka­reem Mar­celle, agreed that the com­mu­ni­ty’s long-stand­ing lack of wa­ter had con­tributed to the tragedy.

While stop­ping short of plac­ing sole blame on the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), Mar­celle said, “We re­al­ly need to do bet­ter as a coun­try. We need to do bet­ter as a cit­i­zen­ry.”

As fire­fight­ers con­tin­ued to douse the re­mains of the house, tears flowed freely among rel­a­tives, neigh­bours and even strangers, as un­der­tak­ers re­moved the body of the 57-year-old from the three-bed­room struc­ture.